Fall Trip 2: Death Valley

I arrived in Death Valley National Park after sunset, and met award-winning photographer Kenny Chu at Stovepipe Wells. The nearly-full moon was scheduled to rise soon, so we decided to go out into the nearby sand dunes to capture some night shots. The moonlight was filtered by scattered clouds, so we decided to use flashlights and a spotlight and use the sky as a backdrop.

For this single exposure I triggered a “bulb” exposure, ran to the top of the dune, rotated a red-tipped flashlight around in a circle, then had Kenny spotlight me briefly. We quickly learned that his 5 million candlepower light was a little bright, so to balance the light we had to use brief flashes or have the person with the spotlight go another 75 feet behind the cameras.